Tsering Hannaford Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC

Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC is the Governor of New South Wales. ‘It was only a relatively short time ago, in 1918, that the Women’s Legal Status Act was passed, allowing women to practice law in NSW,’ says Adelaide artist Tsering Hannaford.

In a distinguished law career spanning 43 years, Margaret Beazley has been a fierce advocate for women in the legal profession. Appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1989, in 1993 she became the first woman exclusively appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. She was the first woman to sit on the NSW Court of Appeal bench in 1996 and made legal history again in 2013 as its first female president.

‘This painting was a commissioned court portrait. The sittings took place over eight meetings in my studio. At the time, the dynamics of power between women and men in Australia’s parliamentary system were being interrogated in the media. There remains a mission for women in institutions where power is shifting. This portrait represents Her Excellency as a strong example for women in the field of law – a true trailblazer.’

Born in 1987, Hannaford is predominantly self-taught but has studied classical painting methods in New York, France and Adelaide. This is her seventh time as an Archibald Prize finalist.